SC - OT - Challenge story

[Philip & Susan Troy]

When I was a lad, we 'ad it toof...

Oops, wrong story...

Some eleven years ago, I was our Provincial chronicler, and chanced to
give the wrong contact name for a fighting practice. The person actually
running it called me on the phone and informed me of my error, whereupon
I apologized and told him I would print the correct information, with my
apologies, in the next issue of The Seahorse.

Lord So-and-so (who may not actually have had an AoA at the time),
proceeded to challenge me to fight to erase the great wrong I had done.
I said, yeah, okay, whatever. This was late fall, early winter, and
fighting season had just ended, since we had no indoor place to fight.
We agreed to put this off til Spring.

Some time later, in the kitchen at the recently discussed Dolorous
Twelfth Night, a.k.a. the Vinegar Feast, Lord So-and-so was helping with
potscrubbing and general schlepping, and had occasion to see me trimming
the pork loins. There were thirty of them, and I reached into each one
and pulled out, by hand, the piece of shoulderblade bone which is
generally left in there by American wholesale butchers of the primary
cuts. I then took each one, in turn, held it up at the full extension of
my left arm, and holding the cleaver in my right hand, proceeded to
chine them, cutting the ribs and "finger bones" off the main spine
structure, then removing the spine so the carvers could easily carve the
meat into chops, if they wished. The cleaver was pretty sharp, and it
probably took five or six strokes to remove each chine bone...of course
it requires a bit of concentration to do safely.

I therefore ignored the person standing at my elbow at first, until he
cleared his throat when I was about halfway through. I looked at him and
he said, eyes bulging, that he hoped I realized that his challenge had
just been his little joke, no hard feelings, okay???

Lord So-and-so, BTW, has since been knighted and moved to another
kingdom, where he currently sits the throne.

Dang. Shoulda kicked his butt... ;  )

Adamantius ("If you do not give us this table I am going to go and tell
my friend Harvey!!!")  
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com